Warriors assistant coach Mike Malone is the son of former NBA head coach Brendan Malone.

Photo: Courtesy Of The Malone Family

Warriors assistant coach Mike Malone is the son of former NBA head...

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Mychal Thompson sees parallels in his 1980s Lakers and son Klay’s Warriors.

Photo: Courtesy The Thompson Family / Courtesy The Thompson Family

Mychal Thompson sees parallels in his 1980s Lakers and son Klay’s...

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Golden State's Stephen Curry, left, interviews his father, former Charlotte Hornets player Dell Curry, before the Curry Celebrity Classic in Davidson, N.C., Monday, June 21, 2010. After an impressive rookie season with Golden State, Curry is back home for the summer.

Photo: Chuck Burton, AP

Golden State's Stephen Curry, left, interviews his father, former...

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Wes Unseld Jr., Warriors assistant coach, 2011.

Photo: Courtesy Golden State Warriors

Wes Unseld Jr., Warriors assistant coach, 2011.

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Washington Wizards general manager Wes Unseld announces the trade of Chris Webber to the Sacramento Kings for Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe at the MCI Center in Washington Thursday, May 14, 1998. (AP Photo/Brian K. Diggs)

It was a comment clearly made in jest, but maybe it shouldn't have been a joke. "I guess we could just pick Austin Rivers and be done with it," scouting director Larry Riley said. Riley made the sarcastic comment on a ride from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to this month's NBA combine, where he spent the bulk of the next 96 hours analyzing what the Warriors should do with draft pick Nos. 7, 30, 35 and 52.

They're not going to draft Rivers, the son of Boston coach Doc Rivers, but maybe they should give it some more consideration. Much of the Warriors' future success relies on the sons of NBA lifers - Stephen Curry, Michael Malone, Klay Thompson and Wes Unseld Jr.

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The Malones

Warriors lead assistant coach Michael Malone is going to be an NBA head coach, whether he gets one of the open jobs in Orlando or Portland or waits for a perfect spot that is yet to come.

"To be going on these interviews and to hear people saying I'm a head-coaching candidate is all because of my dad," Malone said. "His belief in me and confidence in me has been a tremendous boost."

"I just remember being in that gym and hearing the ball bouncing," Michael Malone said. "I loved seeing him coach and being around the players and the team, but the sounds stand out to me."

Brendan Malone tried to talk his son out of coaching as a future and advised Michael Malone to avoid marriage.

"He didn't give me any more (verbal) advice after that, because I clearly didn't listen to him, but he always gives me advice in his actions," Michael Malone said.

His parents' 50th wedding anniversary is this summer, so Michael Malone is taking them to see D-Day beaches, spend time in Paris and visit their Irish homeland. Surely, he'll find a gym along the way.

The Thompsons

Mychal Thompson was a first-team all-rookie player for Portland and a two-time champion with the Lakers, but his son, Klay, doesn't remember watching him play in the NBA.

"Nope, I remember him watching me," Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson said. "He would bring a video camera to my games. It was so annoying."

Those videos aren't so annoying anymore. Klay Thompson's first games in the Portland Boys and Girls Club league against his younger brother, Trayce, are now a source of pride in the family.

From that point until Klay Thompson's senior year of high school, his father told him that he could play in the NBA.

"I finally reached a point and had grown enough that I started to believe what he had been saying since I was in the first grade," Klay Thompson said. "As simple as it sounds, he told me to never lose my confidence."

Klay Thompson got the fourth-most votes from NBA assistant coaches for the all-rookie team in 2011-12. He's gotten even higher acclaim from Warriors executive board member Jerry West, who traded for Mychal and drafted Klay.

"It's great to have people like Mr. West and my dad in my life, because they're close to me, but I can't get anything by them," Klay Thompson said. "They know if I missed a coverage or had a stupid turnover. They know the game so well that it keeps me humble and keeps me working. They know that it's impossible to play a perfect game, but that's what I should be working to try to do."

The Currys

It looked so much like fun, but it ended up being a reminder of everything he had always been told about work ethic.

"I couldn't believe he was the first one on the dog pile, and I stayed close to mom," Stephen Curry said of his father. "He handled himself so well over the course of a 16-year NBA career. He was all about work ethic. He was never going to push me into a gym. He just went there every day, and it rubbed off on me."

But after Dell Curry inbounded the pass that Alonzo Mourning took and sank for the Game 6-winning shot against Boston in the 1993 playoffs, he lost it for a moment. He dived on top of Mourning, leading to an image that still lives in Charlotte sports lore.

Stephen Curry had participated in his usual routine before that shot. He had sat courtside for a while, went and took shots in the practice gym, played a few video games and found his way back to the tunnel for the closing minutes of his father's game.

He just never dreamed his stoic father would leap atop Mourning.

Dell Curry was back to his steadfast approach when he considered Steph's future in the eighth grade, by which time the family was back in Charlotte after stops in Milwaukee and Toronto.

Dell thought Steph was going to be a golfer. Steph thought he was going to be a basketball player.

"I liked both sports equally," Steph Curry said. "I had to pick AAU and going after a basketball scholarship or golf. ... You already know that I wanted to be in the gym."

There are no dog piles in golf.

The Unselds

Sometimes basketball can be a waiting game.

Warriors assistant coach Wes Unseld Jr. remembers waiting for his father's Washington Bullets practices to end, so he could start dribbling all over the court. He remembers getting to play with his dad in between shootarounds and games, being dressed by his mother and being told to wait - without getting his clothes dirty - until the family was ready to head to the arena.

"At that age, I guess the routine is what I remember the most," Unseld said. "A lot of the guys I met, when I was the little kid waiting, still reach out to me when we cross paths."

Rick Mahorn, Mitch Kupchak and Greg Ballard were NBA greenhorns during Wes Unseld's closing seasons, and they took turns driving him to practices and games. They also took turns taking care of junior.

Unseld Jr. wasn't going to chase basketball as a dream. He had a degree from Johns Hopkins and jobs lined up, but his father asked him to take a year to consider all of the jobs within an NBA internship.

Unseld Jr. worked in public relations, made lunch runs and washed the president's car. Eventually his internship brought him to the basketball operations side, where he started evaluating prospects, got sucked into advance scouting and had a full schedule on his itinerary before he noticed.

"It was something I loved to do," Unseld Jr. said. "It was never about sports, sports, sports for my dad. It was about being a good person."

Unseld Jr. will become a first-time dad in November, making Unseld Sr. a first-time grandparent. "He's been waiting to spoil his first grandkid."